


Open Skies and Closed Doors

by CaptainCoffee



Category: Star Trek Voyager
Genre: ANGSSSSSTTTTT, F/M, Mutual Pining, Why do I do this, the aftermath of Resolutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29218161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCoffee/pseuds/CaptainCoffee
Summary: I was just trying to write a one-shot about Kathryn lending Chakotay Dante’s Inferno, and somehow this happened...
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Comments: 9
Kudos: 15





	Open Skies and Closed Doors

**Author's Note:**

> I was just trying to write a one-shot about Kathryn lending Chakotay Dante’s Inferno, and somehow this happened...

* * *

The sky.

Kathryn ran a hand over the silky blue fabric of the dress.

The one she had been wearing when they received the fateful call from Voyager-a call that had all at once healed her and broken her.

The sky.

That’s what the color reminded her of.

An open sky, so different from the dark, starry view she had grown used to day after day.

A view that now felt suffocating, just as the once comforting walls of Voyager now felt so very close-too close for comfort.

“Kathryn?”

She nearly jumped at the sound of Chakotay’s voice.

“I’m sorry to disturb you.”

“You’re not. Come in.”

She was only too glad to be distracted from her unpacking- although his presence probably wouldn’t help matters much.

“I think this got into my luggage by mistake.”

He gently held out a well-worn book with a red cover.

“Oh. Thank you.”

“I wouldn’t have expected Dante”, he teased with a slight smile.

”It-it was a gift. I hadn’t read it in years. I usually don’t have the time...”

She didn’t finish her sentence.

On New Earth, there had been all the time in the world.

Now, there was none.

“I’ve never read it”, Chakotay said softly.

“Why don’t you borrow it for a while then”, she offered, drawing in a breath as she watched him thumb through the pages, and read the handwritten note she knew by heart:

_  
‘To Kathryn, with all my love. Mark.’ _

A note written, so long ago, by a far-off fiancé in a far-off quadrant.

She thought of him.

Had he waited for her?

Would he wait for her?

How long?

Seventy years... a lifetime...

“Are you sure you trust me to borrow this? It must be very special to you.”

Chakotay’s voice jolted her from her musings, so quickly that she spoke without thinking.

“So are-“ 

Her breath caught painfully in her throat as she choked back the truth she could never speak. 

_‘So are you’,_ she longed to say.  
_ ‘You mean more to me than anyone in the world, and I’d give everything I have for a chance to make things different.’_

“It’s just a book”, was all she said instead.

She saw him reach out a hand, almost imperceptibly, as if to touch her face, but the touch never came.

It would never come, she knew, as long as she stood firm to the boundaries she had set the moment they beamed back aboard Voyager.

She was the Captain, he was the First Officer.

They could never be anything more.

“I’ll always treasure the time we had, Kathryn. I mean that.”

His kind, dark eyes met hers, and she knew if she looked even a moment too long, she would be lost.

Wrenching her gaze to the floor, she nodded as he turned to leave.

“Chakotay?”

He looked back to her, the faint trace of hope in his eyes almost weakening her resolve.

How she wanted to ask him to stay, to never leave her side, to be everything to her for the rest of their lives.

But instead, she turned away, staring out into the endless stars, and spoke the words that felt like a hot knife twisting into her heart.

“Here, it’s Captain.”

She didn’t miss the bitterness in Chakotay’s response, spoken just before the doors of her quarters-and their relationship-closed behind him forever.

“How could I forget.”


End file.
